New Poll Reveals Concerns Still Linger About Hillary Clinton’s Health

It appears that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s ability to withstand the stress of Monday night’s presidential debate has done little to assuage voters’ concerns about her health and physical ability to become president.

According to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, the majority of respondents believe Republican nominee Donald Trump is more physically fit to carry out the duties of the president of the United States.

While the candidates are very close to the same age, 51 percent of voters polled have a greater amount of confidence in 70-year-old Trump’s health compared to only 36 percent for the soon-to-be 69-year-old Clinton.

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Concerns about Clinton’s health, which have been an issue for several months, were increased after she suffered an episode while attending a 9/11 memorial service in New York.

The episode, later attributed to pneumonia, required Clinton to be taken to her daughter’s home to rest. But video showing Clinton having to be lifted into a van in order to leave the event left a powerful image in many people’s minds.

Clinton took a few days off from the campaign trail to regain her strength, and has not had any significant coughing spells since. However, the lack of transparency in which Clinton and her campaign staff dealt with the issue (the pneumonia diagnosis was never mentioned until after the 9/11 incident) raised additional doubts about her health as well as her honesty.

In the days and weeks after the pneumonia episode, the Trump campaign saw a surge in its polling numbers.

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As to the amount of publicity Clinton’s state of health is receiving, nearly 50 percent of women said they feel it is getting too much attention, compared to 40 percent of men.

The question of stamina was brought up during the debate, at which time Clinton recalled a time when she spent 11 hours giving testimony to Congress. She also noted that while in office, she visited 112 countries.

Trump responded by saying, “She doesn’t have the look. She doesn’t have the stamina, I said she doesn’t have the stamina, and I don’t believe she does have the stamina.”

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University commented, “Stamina is a code word for maybe not physically up to the job.”

He went on to add, “There’s something of a bias about men versus women that subtly Trump has played to …”

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Sherri Smart, an undecided voter from New York said she would like to see the candidates spend less time on health and more time discussing the issues facing the country.

“Everybody gets sick,” Smart said. “What’s important is, what are you going to do for me?”